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Responding to Opioid Overdoses in Alaska

Recognizing the disproportionate effects the overdose epidemic has had on rural Alaska residents, the Alaska Overdose Response Strategy (ORS) team works to organize and support overdose prevention and response activities within this population. As opioids are often available in rural villages before sufficient treatment and harm reduction resources, specific communities and demographics see higher-than-average rates of fatal overdose. Indigenous populations in Alaska experience fatal overdose at more than two times the rate of the rest of the state. To bolster overdose response in rural communities, the AK ORS team provided overdose response training to village public safety officers (VPSOs) during their statewide in-service. VPSOs are community members embedded in rural villages who provide basic public safety and emergency response services in the absence of a trooper outpost or police station. During this training, overdose response kits including intranasal naloxone were distributed to officers. Following the training, participants reported feeling more confident that they could identify the signs and symptoms of an opioid overdose. Officers representing 30 villages attended the training and 36 overdose response kits were distributed during the session.